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DIRECTIVE No.16/1998/CT-TTg OF MARCH 31, 1998 ON THE SETTLEMENT OF ENTERPRISES' PETITIONS

In January, February and March 1998, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Loc and leaders of several branches had meetings with representatives of enterprises of various economic sectors in all three regions of the country respectively in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang cities. These meetings and talks have created initial progress in the cooperation between State agencies and enterprises to remove difficulties and obstacles in production and business. Many reasonable petitions made by enterprises in the three meetings have been accepted and settled by ministries and branches.

In order to further promote the outcome of the above-mentioned meetings, create favorable conditions for domestic enterprises to bring into full play domestic resources, to effectively develop production and business and to gradually integrate into the region and the world, the Prime Minister instructs the branches and levels to expeditiously perform the following tasks:

1. Tasks that need to be immediately performed.

1.1. Within their assigned responsibilities and powers, the ministries and the general departments of the finance, customs, banking, planning, trade, interior (economic police), inspection, communication... sectors shall continue to deal with in time petitions and complaints of enterprises regarding concrete matters and cases, including written recommendations directly sent to the agencies but due to the lack of time for their presentation at such meetings and petitions sent by enterprises afterwards. Within 15 days from the date of receipt of petitions or complaints from enterprises, the heads of the above-mentioned agencies should reply and report the result to the Prime Minister.

Those questions that are beyond their jurisdiction must be forwarded to the Prime Minister. For questions that are deemed insoluble, they must be duly explained so that enterprises can fully understand and observe the provisions of law; to abolish the authoritarian and unilateral way of working with enterprises. Leading officials of the functional agencies should regularly and closely supervise their grassroots units and officials who directly settle enterprises' petitions.

1.2. The State management agencies shall immediately institutionalize procedures for receiving and replying enterprises' petitions and announce them on the mass media to enterprises (including names and addresses of the officials in charge of solving petitions, places of receipt of written petitions and complaints, time to reply petitions and complaints...).

1.3. Enterprises shall be entitled to report directly to the Prime Minister any petitions that have been reported to the concerned agencies for 15 days but not yet replied. The Prime Minister shall consider, deal with and announce on the newspapers the agencies which have competence and responsibility to solve enterprises' petitions but failed to properly discharge their responsibility.

To strengthen the standing body of the Central Steering Committee for Renewal of Enterprises headquartered at the Office of the Government to assist the Prime Minister in receiving and handling enterprises' petitions and coordinating in studying and directing all matters related to enterprises of all economic sectors.

To strengthen the role of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the enterprises' associations in gathering enterprises' opinions, detecting questions that newly arise and proposing recommendations to the Prime Minister and the agencies attached to the Government.

2. Enterprise-related institutional issues to be soon amended.

2.1. The ministries and the general departments shall scan all existing legal documents on the mechanisms, policies and administrative procedures under their management functions to detect irrational, overlapping and conflicting regulations therein which are causing difficulties to enterprises' activities; study and promptly deal with questions that have been made clear in order to facilitate enterprises' production and business activities while ensuring the discipline and laws of the State.

The ministries and the general departments shall have to take the initiative in handling questions within the ambit of their powers and responsibilities. For questions governed by inter-branch regulations, the heads of the concerned branches shall coordinate with one another in settling them in the spirit of facilitating enterprises, avoiding to turn down their reasonable requirements merely for personal or sectional interests. Any unsettled problems or divergence of opinions of the ministries and branches thereon should be promptly reported to the Prime Minister for handling.

2.2. In 1998, efforts should be concentrated on studying and settling institutional matters (including administrative procedures) and the institutional observance in the following fields:

2.2.1. Granting of licenses for the establishment of enterprises and business registration.

The provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall assign the provincial/municipal Planning and Investment Departments to receive dossiers and handle proposals of the enterprises and submit them to the presidents of the People's Committees for decision. Pending the amendments and supplements to the Law on Companies, enterprises which have been granted the establishment licenses, meet all the necessary conditions and wish to immediately register their business, shall be granted business registration certificates by the planning agency without having to filling other procedures. The district economic and planning departments shall receive dossiers and submit them to the presidents of the district People's Committees for granting business licenses to households with capital lower than the legal capital as prescribed by the provisions of law and regulations of the concerned branches.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall study to amend and supplement laws and decrees on the establishment of enterprises and business registration for the people along the direction of specifying the trades and occupations which are banned from business and trades as well as occupations where business must be permitted. For other trades and occupations the State shall prescribe necessary business conditions (including specific conditions for a number of necessary trades and occupations). On the basis of these stipulations, people who wish to run a business shall only have to register their business without having to apply for permits. The designation of agencies in charge of business registration must ensure both convenience for the people and easy control of registered businesses.

To study and submit to the Prime Minister for issuance the regulations that prohibit public agencies from doing business in the provision of services on the procedures and matters which they have competence to settle, such as those related to land, construction, investment...

2.2.2. Regarding import and export.

The Ministry of Trade shall study to amend and/or supplement its regulations or propose to amend and/or supplement documents already issued by the Prime Minister so as to strongly encourage exporting enterprises. Except for a small number of goods items which need to be controlled by the State, export permits shall be abolished for most of the remaining goods items; export procedures shall be simplified and the quota allocation mechanism and the processed goods management mechanism shall be renewed; special preferential policies shall be adopted for enterprises that manufacture goods for export; enterprises that have found markets for exporting goods items that Vietnam has advantages and encourages to export shall be rewarded; all cases of causing troubles in the granting of import-export permits or all negative acts in the quota allocation shall be examined and promptly handled;

To coordinate with relevant agencies in studying and submitting to the Government policies to support a number of export goods that Vietnam has comparative disadvantages given the drastically fluctuating exchange rates of various countries.

2.3. Regarding finance, customs and banking.

The Ministry of Finance shall study and submit to the Government for further submission to the National Assembly amendments and supplements to a number of tax laws. To provide detailed guidance on the application of tax rates so as to avoid their haphazard application and on the regime of invoices and vouchers which is suited to reality and feasible, and ensure their uniform implementation. To increase the number of enterprises that can make on their own declarations and payment to the State treasury; the tax agencies shall have to examine the declarations to ensure their accuracyand avoid losses of State revenues; to abolish additional income tax imposed on enterprises that manufacture goods for export.

To coordinate with the General Department of Customs in considering and structuring the import-export tax rates, in selecting ways to determine the tax calculation prices so as to create conditions for the tax codes and prices to be applied in a fast and accurate manner.

The General Department of Customs shall submit soon to the Government amendments to Decree No.171-HDBT of May 27, 1991 specifying customs procedures and customs fees; expeditiously issue the regulations on improving customs procedures so as to materialize what the General Director of the General Department of Customs presented at the meetings and regulations that leading officials of the General Department of Customs and lower-level customs offices shall have to work out a timetable for regular meetings with representatives of enterprises and hear their opinions so as to promptly improve and guide customs officers to well serve enterprises' activities as well as provide guidance for enterprises to understand and correctly implement the regulations. To resolutely sack from the branch customs officers who commit acts of hassling enterprises.

The State Bank shall study and solve enterprises' reasonable petitions concerning medium-term and long-term loans; debt repayment corresponding to the capital rotation cycle, property depreciation duration and enterprises' capabilities to generate sources of capital for repayment, the payment of loan interests to be agreed upon by the lending credit institutions and enterprises; the use of property purchased with borrowed money as mortgage at banks; and the assistance for enterprises to fulfill their commitments to repaying foreign debts.

To promptly remove procedural difficulties and obstacles so that enterprises can have favorable conditions to borrow bank loans.

2.4. Work related to inspection, supervision and trial.

The Ministry of the Interior shall uphold in the whole branch the adherence to the professional principles; promote the prevention work and regard it as the major task; not to abuse positions or powers to cause troubles to enterprises.

To coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, the State Inspectorate, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Supreme People's Court in studying, guiding and differentiating in detail the range of economic disputes from that of criminal relations, clearly distinguish between administrative-economic violations and criminal offenses.

The Ministry of Justice shall assume the prime responsibility and study together with relevant branches measures against the criminalization of civil economic relations.

The State Inspectorate shall expeditiously submit to the Government for issuance a decree issuing the regulations on the inspection and supervision of enterprises, which clearly define the scope of responsibilities and powers of the State inspectorate, specialized inspectorates, economic police... and measures to avoid overlapping and hassling problems in inspection and supervision; make it clear that the task of supervision is to assist and guide enterprises in removing obstacles and to create favorable conditions for enterprises' activities and, at the same time, rectify deviations in the implementation of laws and policies and restrict negative phenomena in business activities.

The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Communication and Transport shall amend regulations on the communication checks, abolish unnecessary checkpoints, prevent and strictly handle cases of hassling and obstructing vehicle owners and goods owners.

3. Work related to the issuance of documents and contacts with enterprises' representatives.

3.1. When drafting legal documents related to enterprises, the ministries and branches shall, apart from consulting State agencies and specialists, gather opinions of enterprises through the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and concerned enterprises' associations; when issuing documents of this type, they shall have to send them to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry so that the latter shall send their copies to each enterprise; documents that change mechanisms and policies related to enterprises' activities should include measures to deal with matters governed by old policies given the application of new policies.

3.2. The Office of the Government shall study and propose to the Prime Minister the assignment to relevant agencies of the task of studying enterprise-related matters that shall be amended in a fundamental, synchronous and comprehensive manner so as to gradually form stable and permanent institutions;

To urge the ministries and branches to send monthly reports, synthesize them and report to the Prime Minister on the results of the implementation of this Directive and, at the same time, coordinate with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in making preparations for the Prime Minister's regular meetings with enterprises' representatives with appropriate contents and forms.

The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government, the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government and relevant organizations shall have to implement this Directive.

For the Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister

NGO XUAN LOC